Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor generated more than $600milllion in revenue for their clash, which was quite rightly billed as ‘The Money Fight’ in 2017.
Who is Mayweather?
Floyd Mayweather is a world-renowned American boxing champion and promoter. Floyd Mayweather’s net worth is $450 million. That makes him the richest boxer of all time. Floyd’s total career earnings, as of this writing, top $1.1 billion.
Floyd is 5th highest-paid athlete of all time and one of just six athletes whose career earnings have topped $1 billion. The other five are Michael Schumacher ($1 billion), Jack Nicklaus ($1.15 billion), Arnold Palmer ($1.35 billion), Tiger Woods ($1.65 billion), and Michael Jordan ($1.9 billion).
Who is McGregor?
Conor McGregor rose from a tough neighborhood to become the biggest star in the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA). After joining the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2013, “The Notorious” unified the featherweight division with his title win in 2015, and the following year he became a two-division champion by winning the lightweight title. McGregor also famously fought boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017. He abruptly retired from MMA in March 2019, before returning with a victory in January 2020.
Who is richer?
America’s retired 50-0 boxing legend ended his career five years ago by stopping Ireland’s MMA superstar in the tenth round of their crossover boxing match. Now it’s rumored the pair are in talks for a potential second fight. Many fans have reacted to this news by simply asking: “Why?” The first bout between the pair was not competitive, nor was it ever expected to be, and ended with a conclusive finish. However, the reason for a potential rematch is in truth very simple – money, more money. The first time around, ‘The Money Fight’ made history as the second most lucrative bout in the history of combat sports. It was beaten only by Floyd’s 2015 super fight with Manny Pacquiao, which also generated more than $600million and registered a higher total number than Mayweather vs McGregor.
The Money Fight of course made most of its profits through US pay-per-view sales. Mayweather vs McGregor did 4.3million buys, coming just short of the 4.6million record for Mayweather vs Pacquiao – which some belief may never be beaten.
Gate revenue from ticket sales raked in $55m at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. This stands today as the second highest gate in boxing history, behind only the $72m for Mayweather vs Pacquiao at the MGM Grand. The Nevada State Athletic Commission announced that Mayweather’s guaranteed purse was $100m and McGregor’s guaranteed purse was $30m. In reality, they both made far more once pay-per-view profits were tallied. In the end, Mayweather reportedly earned around $300m in total from the fight, while McGregor earned around $100m. As a nice additional extra, the WBC awarded the winner with the most valuable boxing belt ever made. The WBC ‘Money Belt’ was created especially for the fight. While the exact cost of the trophy was never disclosed, estimates put it somewhere between $400,000 and $1m. The belt included 3,360 diamonds, 600 sapphires, 300 emeralds, and 1.5 kilograms of solid, 24-karat gold. It was made with alligator leather imported from Italy.
Should a rematch come to fruition, Mayweather and McGregor will no doubt be hoping to walk away with nine figures each once again, and the WBC will have to craft a new belt to give the American.